


A Pit of a day

by Jarakrisafis



Category: Transformers Generation One
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-28
Updated: 2013-02-28
Packaged: 2017-12-03 22:17:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/703234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jarakrisafis/pseuds/Jarakrisafis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>24 hours in Ratchet's life, when all he wants is a good cube of energon and some time to recharge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Pit of a day

**Author's Note:**

> A long time ago I started one of those 24 hour memes. I then lost this and thought it had been deleted. Found it in my backup, have finished the last couple, polished it off and decided to post it.

**Midnight - This isn't going to be my day is it?/It'll get worse before it gets better: Trailbreaker, Gears**

“Ratchet? You ok there?” The medic in question raised dulled optics to the black form currently peering at him.

“I’m fine, just, forgot what I came in here for.”

Trailbreaker raised an optical ridge then shrugged. “Shouldn’t you be recharging?”

Ratchet huffed, “When I get time to recharge I’ll try it, but Prowl still wants reports from the last battle, several mechs have checkups due and Hoist isn't out of medical stasis yet so I'll have to do them, I have an inventory to take and an order to place, and Wheeljack blew himself up. Again.”

The black Autobot merely raised both optical ridges as the list grew.

“I suppose today just isn’t going to be my day, at least Jack will stay in one piece since I banned him from his lab.” Ratchet finally said as he gave up trying to remember what he had come to the rec room for.

"It'll get worse before it gets better" Gears put in absently as he wandered past, his attention mainly focused on a datapad.

Trailbreaker gave Ratchet a pitying glance and a pat on the shoulder before he wandered out of the rec room, his parting comment not really helping. “Have a good day Ratchet.” 

**1am - You have got to be kidding me: Sunstreaker and Sideswipe**

“What exactly are you doing now?” Two helms turned to regard the medic.

“Us Ratch? Nothing. Just lounging.”

“Lounging?” Ratchet looked extremely sceptical as he frowned at the twins. “At this time of the morning?”

“Why not at this time in the morning?” Sideswipe said brightly as he grinned. “What are you doing here?”

Ratchet raised an optical ridge. “Heading back to the medbay.”

“Oh. Well.” Sideswipe tilted his helm slightly. “We’ll just go lounge elsewhere.” Sunstreaker nodded agreement, the two of them rapidly retreating down the corridor.

Ratchet sighed, wondering if he should see if Prowl and Red are still up and warn them that the twins are Up To Something.

Later. After he had swiped some energon - slag, energon! That was what he went to the rec room for - and got back to his medbay and the stack of reports that needed doing. They couldn’t cause that much trouble in so small a space of time...

**2am - How did you manage that?: Wheeljack**

“Hey First Aid.” Wheeljacks overly cheerful greeting made the plating on Ratchets neck lift in suspicion, such a greeting was usually accompanied by a detached limb or something equally morbid.

The lack of audible response from First Aid only increased the apprehension. So much so that Ratchet resisted the urge to poke his helm around the doorframe of his office for almost a full Earth minute before his curiosity got the better of him and he regretfully put the almost full cube of energon back on his desk and made his way to the door. It had taken two trips to the rec room to remember that he had gone there to get a slagging cube and he was going to fragging well enjoy it, not gulp it down and rush back out to work.

“How did you manage that?” the words slipped past his vocaliser before he could mute it.

“Hi Ratchet.” Wheeljack said, studiously ignoring the apprentice medic collapsed at his feet. “Didn’t you finish your shift a while ago?”

Ratchet reset his optics. Unfortunately the vision remained the same, unfortunate because it meant that his much vaunted ability to deal with anything without twitching an optic was about to go to slag. Although given that First Aid was still collapsed on the floor attempting to draw air into his intakes his subsequent collapse was unlikely to be too noticeable.

Ratchet finally gave in, the doorframe being the only thing keeping him upright as he dissolved into laughter.

Wheeljack huffed, nudging First Aid with a foot, which only resulted in even more laughter from the younger medic.

“Seriously Jack, how?” Ratchet managed as he made his way across the medbay, motioning for Wheeljack to hop up onto a berth as First Aid managed to climb back to his feet without too much snickering. “I ban you from your lab for blowing out the door and you still come in looking like something blew up.”

Wheeljack sighed, his headfins blinking sheepishly, a pattern that Ratchet knew well from the aftermath of many explosions. “The twins happened, but you should see the other bot...”

**3am - Daring: Hot Rod**

Wonderful, just wonderful. They finally get into contact with Cybertron and Magnus just had to send them a group of mechs who could cause as much trouble as the twins. And then some idiot goes and introduces them all to each other.

Ratchet sighed as he spared a glance for Prowl as he stood on the outside of the bars of the brig, the ex-enforcers doorwings drooping slightly, a sure sign that Ratchet wasn’t the only one who hadn’t yet made it to their berth. “Do I want to know?”

“Not really.” Ratchet said as he went back to his rewiring.

“It was a dare.” Hot Rod said with a huge grin, the arm not in Ratchet’s grasp waving around wildly. “They bet that I could, couldn’t, what was I doing?”

Ratchet sighed as one of Prowl’s optical ridges rose. “You won’t get any sense out of him; he rattled his processor when he hit the wall.”

“I didn’t hit the wall, the wall hit me!” The glaringly orange and red arm passed dangerously close to Ratchet’s helm. “It’s all a conspiri, conspirity, conspiriticy.”

“Conspiracy?” Prowl interjected.

“That’s it. A conspiricity. And they’re all out to get me.”

Doorwings twitched. “I’ll come back later.” Prowl stated blandly before making his way out of the brig, leaving behind an annoyed medic and his happy patient.

**4am - Mistakes and their consequences: Sunstreaker and Sideswipe**

“Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, how nice of you to come down here.” Both of them shifted uncomfortably as Ratchet twirled a wrench in one hand. “Prowl said that I can deal with you since I’m the one who’s just spent over an hour of my existence putting Hot Rod back together.” 

“That wasn’t our fault!” Sideswipe protested, only to censor himself as Ratchet raised his wrench.

“And Wheeljack’s injuries also weren’t your fault?”

“Uhhhhm? No.” Sideswipe said with a bright grin.

“And the wall in corridor B9 is also not your fault?”

“Definitely not.” Sideswipe shook his head, a positively angelic look gracing his faceplates.

“And you are upstanding members of this crew?”

“Of course.” Both he and Sunstreaker nodded.

“So as upstanding members of this crew you’ll be good enough to go and fix the wall even though it was nothing to do with you?”

“Yes.” Sideswipe frowned. “I mean no.” He glared at the cleaning supplies Ratchet had removed from his subspace. “I mean slag it.”

**5am - He did what now?: Red Alert**

“Letmegoslagitputmedown!”

“Ratchet? Aid?”

“Ifyoudon'tputmedownI'llputyouonmonitordutyforever!”

The two medics in question glanced at each other, before Aid made a quick dash for the storeroom. “I ah, gotta go inventory.” He said as he disappeared through the door. Traitor. Ratchet cursed himself for not thinking of that plan first.

“What can I do for you?” Ratchet asked mildly as Inferno strode in, Red Alert slung over his shoulder.

“He's fritzing again.” The firetruck said as he dumped the security director on a berth. Then added a hand to his chest when Red Alert attempted to scramble off again.

Ratchet just sighed as he stared at the sparks crackling around the security directors helm as he struggled to get up, wriggling around like a cybercat.

“Youdon'tunderstandtheyareouttogetusandIhavetokeepanopticonthem!” Neither of them even noticed the sentences that Blurr would have been proud of. Worked up security director speech was not something new and they had both had plenty of practice in deciphering it.

It abruptly cut off as Ratchet simply gave up and sedated Red Alert, the mech dropping back to the berth and they both heaved a sigh of relief as he fell silent.

“So?” Ratchet prompted.

Inferno shrugged slightly before launching into a long and complicated tale, none of which appeared to be relevant to Red Alert flipping out until he reached the end.

Ratchet stared. Reset his optics. Stared some more. “He did what now?”

**6am - Primus hates me: Inferno**

“Primus hates me.” Inferno said as he looked up from his seat beside the comatose Red Alert.

Ratchet let out a buzz of static. “Yeah, me too.” He ignored First Aid creeping back out of the storeroom and to his favourite berth to complete his pads. Next time he'd delegate before the cunning little glitch could sneak off.

The whirr of systems powering up gained both their attention as Red Alert returned to the land of the functioning. “Inferno?” Blue optics stared at the larger mech for a long moment before drifting to Ratchet. “Ratchet?” There was another long pause. “Why am I in the medbay?”

Red Alert rolled off the berth before patting himself down. “I'm not injured.” He tilted his helm. “I'm also meant to be on duty.” He frowned. “Who did you leave in the control room? They could be doing anything!” He dodged around Ratchet and slid underneath Inferno's outstretched arm, dashing out the door as if he had a battalion of Decepticons on his aft.

Inferno just shook his helm. “Primus must really hate me.”

**7am - Generous: Skyfire**

“You look like you’ve just gone three rounds with Bruticus.” Ratchet peered wearily at the large shuttle who was eyeing him with concern from the doorway to his lab. 

“Feels like it too.” He replied shortly. Not that he didn’t want to talk to the mech - but his energon was still calling him, he’d abandoned it to deal with Wheeljack hours before and just hadn’t got back, and now he was about three doorways away from his goal.

Ratchet yelped as he was abruptly picked up and carried into the shuttles lab and set down on a work surface. “You need to take better care of yourself.”

He didn’t get a chance to reply as Skyfire took hold of one of his hands and pulled it towards him, a cube of energon being pushed into his other hand that hadn’t been claimed.

“Really Ratchet, you need to remember to stop every so often.” The flier was speaking more to himself than to the medic as he tweaked gears and cables, slowly causing Ratchet to relax, his engine settling into a calm rumble instead of angry revving. 

**8am - Not Actually Helpful: Groove, First Aid**

Ratchet frowned as he strode wearily back into his domain, what with the twins causing mayhem, Wheeljack being Wheeljack and Red Alert fritzing out he was ready to recharge for a week. Which given Skyfire’s intervention had nearly happened. First Aid was still curled up on the berth in the corner, pads spread around him as he finished up his reports. But the other mech currently in the room was unexpected.

“What are you doing?”

Groove looked up and waved a hand as he continued sorting tools. “First Aid mentioned that with the last few battles being so close together you were getting a bit disorganised in here as you hadn’t had time for a sort out.”

“Right, thanks Groove” Ratchet said, too tired to care as he stepped into his office and slumped into his chair, the soft clinking of metal on metal from the medbay slowly lulling him towards recharge.

“Ratchet?” First Aids quiet inquiry caused the older medic to jerk his helm up, optics flickering as he pulled his systems back to full power.

“What’s up?”

“I’ve finished my reports.” The neat stack was added to the pile already on the desk. “And, ah, next time you see Groove, don’t tell him that arranging our tools by size instead of use isn’t really that helpful, he tried his best.”

**9am - Bubbles, Wheeljack, Sideswipe**

“Ratchet, I know you’ve been on duty for a while...”

“What the slag is wrong now Jack? If you’ve melted even one more circuit I’m not putting you back together again.” Ratchet growled down the commline, Wheeljack blowing himself up more than once a day had been known to happen, but how he could do so twice in one day while banned from his lab was something the medic didn’t want to contemplate.

“Why do you always assume I’ve exploded?” Wheeljack sounded vaguely hurt. “Anyway, just get down to the washracks would you.”

“I’m on my way.” Ratchet vented a gust of air before transforming and peeling out towards the washracks.

Turning the last corner he nearly ran into the back of Wheeljacks legs, the inventor blocking the doorway as he peered into the room.

“What the slag?” Ratchet said as he stared over Wheeljacks shoulder at the mountain of bubbles that had taken over the washracks.

“I was installing the new cleanser and hadn’t rerouted the water yet to dilute it and obviously my sign wasn’t clear enough.” Ratchet tilted his helm as Wheeljack pointed out a giant wooden board, his nearly illegible Cybertronian scrawl proclaiming the washracks were out of order.

“So what do you need me for, bubbles aren’t going to hurt a mech.” Ratchet asked as he seriously considered clipping Wheeljack over the helm for dragging him all the way here when he wasn’t needed.

“No.” The audial fins flickered, clearly transmitting Wheeljacks amusement, “but when he slid into the wall and offlined himself when trying to add some coloured dye to the water I just thought you’d appreciate the blackmail material.” That said the engineer moved aside so that Ratchet could get a good look at the mech slumped in a corner.

Ratchet reset his optics, but the vision was still the same, Sideswipe, proclaimed master of pranks was covered in pink hued bubbles. Ratchet grinned and patted a winglet, “Thanks Jack.” All thoughts of braining the engineer were gone as he sauntered away from the washracks, the image filed away in a secure portion of his memory core.

**10am - Just stick it in: Optimus**

“Optimus?” It wasn’t everyday one saw the big mech crouching in front of his door, aft in the air.

“Ratchet? Mind if I borrow your wrench?”

“What in the Pit are you doing?” the medic asked as he withdrew his wrench from subspace and passed it over.

“I seem to have accidentally deleted my office passcode from my processor and Red isn't answering his commlink so I can’t get a new one.”

“I see.” Ratchet said as the aft wiggled around as Optimus jammed the edge of the wrench into the door, attempting to lever it open. “You want any help?”

“Yes.” The aft waggled again as he managed to create a small gap between the door and frame. “If you could just stick something in it.”

A second wrench was procured from subspace.

“Now, if I just tweak this a little and set off the right sensors...” Optimus rumbled as he used a stylus from a datapad to try and set off the unlocking mechanism.

“Ouch. Ease up would you.” Ratchet winced as the stylus was poked into his hand.

“Sorry.” Prime said as he readjusted the angle. “It’s still a little big”

“Well, don’t push it in as much.”

“I’ll try.”

“Almost there.”

“Yes!”

“Ahem, I am not sure this is the appropriate place for such activities.”

Optimus and Ratchet stopped trying to untangle themselves from where they had fallen through the now open door. “Oh dear.” Optimus said as they both stared up at Prowl as he stood above them, arms crossed and optics narrowed.

**11am - It went WHERE?!: Optimus, Prowl**

“Ah, this isn’t what it seems?” Optimus managed as he rolled to one side.

“Indeed?” The famous optic ridge rose as Prowl remained at parade rest in the doorway.

“Well, actually, you see, sticking this in just wasn’t enough” Ratchet drawled from his place sprawled on the floor as he held up his wrench.

Prowl blinked, his optics flickering as he processed the statement, his cool logic apparently failing as his battle computer shut down to avoid a full glitch. He backed up a step, optics wide. "It went WHERE?!"

Optimus snickered. “Where do you think it went?”

“Slag!” Ratchet finally said as Prowl hit the floor, even without his battle computer on it obviously had not stopped his processor from attempting to come up with an answer for Prime’s question.

Now he’d have to haul him back to medbay.

Sharing a sideways glance with Optimus he started to chuckle.

Worth it. So very worth it.

**12noon - The other me**

Ratchet was still snickering as he sprawled out in his office, the offline Prowl still slumped in the guest chair. Perhaps it would have been better to put him on a berth. But really, the mech should know better than to let his logic circuits free on anything himself or Prime might say. It usually led to this result.

For all that the bots told him he should get out of his medbay and stop being so grouchy, they sure didn't appreciate it when he did.

A group of the minibots had given him a wide berth as he had dragged Prowl down the the medbay. The aerialbots had politely stepped aside, letting him past, Jazz had turned tail and fled and even First Aid had poked his helm around the doorframe of the office before he had yelped and vanished.

Then again. That could have been because of the slightly unhinged giggles. Always guaranteed to get him some peace and quiet.

**1pm - Ironhide: bodyslam**

His peace lasted a grand total of one human hour before ending. In the usual way of things around the madhouse known as the Ark, loudly, violently and entirely by surprise.

The crash outside his office had him careening around the doorframe before his processor had worked out what the noise actually was. That was his first mistake. His second mistake was to try and stop himself from hitting the mech on the other side.

If he had any sense he would have continued forwards and the other would have ended up on the bottom. Instead he tried to break, turn aside and use the mech as a handhold to remain upright.

Suffice it to say that it didn't work.

“Ironhide?” He asked once his processor cleared anough for his to work out who exactly he was underneath.

“Hey Doc, how strange to see you here?” Ironhide smirked until Ratchet pushes him aside.

“Fragger. Well, since you're here, you can give me a hand straightening the dents in my aft since you're slagging heavy.”

Ironhide smirked slightly, “Sure you don't want to head into your office to pound them out?” He ducked the swat at his helm without conscious thought. “So, that'd be a no then?”

**2pm - Gears: medical officer**

Ratchet was sure that he was going to strain cabling in his neck, but he just couldn't look away. Apparently the Ark had a new medical officer. Albeit a rather annoyed and unwilling one.

Gears, and Ratchet had to run a quick scan to make sure it was indeed the minibot, growled as he parked himself in the entrance to the medbay.

That was... actually remarkably accurate. If a little undersized. The little pickup truck even had a small lightbar across it's roof that was flashing in time with the angry rev of its engine.

“Do I want to know?” Ratchet asked as Gears shifted back into his bipedal form, his shiny silvery white and bright red paint scheme gleaming under the medbay lights.

“I woke up like this.” The minibot said as he hefted himself up onto a berth. “Can you unwire the lights. I can repaint myself but it's bad enough the humans want to drive me around. I don't want them thinking that I'll give them a free ride to a human medbay.”

**3pm - Complications: Sunstreaker and Sideswipe**

“You, ah, know that job.”

Ratchet didn't say a word as Sideswipe shifted in place and Sunstreaker looked like he was resisting introducing his forehelm to his palm by sheer force of will. Although, it was more likely to be his palm to his brothers helm then his own.

“Well, uh, you see, the thing is...” Sideswipe tried again before trailing off and Sunstreaker lost his battle. The metallic clang as his palm bounced off the back of Sideswipe's helm echoed around medbay.

“What Sideswipe is trying to tell you is that the wall we were meant to be fixing had a minor accident.”

Ratchet continued to stare, one foot tapping against the floor and Sideswipe backed up. “It errrr, well, I hope you don't mind their being a new door into the storage bay.” He finished before hitting the floor on four wheels and leaving a cloud of smoke as evidence of his hurried departure. Sunstreaker wasted no time in following his example.

Ratchet just sighed. Apparently he had a new door to go inspect.

**4pm - Jazz: containment**

“Well, that's new.” Ratchet huffed a full ventilation of Earth atmosphere as Jazz leant over his shoulder. “I'm sure there wasn't a door here before.” The saboteur ran his optics over the hole in the wall with a practised optic. “So, when did you take to blowing the walls apart. I thought that was Wheeljack's job?”

“Actually this is twin related and I'm just making sure there was nothing important in here.”

Jazz frowned, his helm tilting to one side. “Have you checked the contents of the room yet?”

“No. Why?” Ratchet asks, Jazz's tone not boding well at all.

“Well, last I knew Beachcomber and Groove were using this room.”

Ratchet really doesn't want to know.

Jazz is going to tell him anyway. “Might want to let them know their pets are on the loose.” He picks up a broken cage door which is no longer attached to the large by human standards cage. “Probably should tell Red that Groove's kitty is loose again.”

“Thank you for offering.” Ratchet says as he abruptly turns around and stalks out. He's going back to medbay. Jazz can deal with hunting down the two Siberian Tigers this time.

**5pm - What did you do this time?: Wheeljack**

Wheeljack practically skipping into the medbay was never a good sign. Doing so after being banned from his lab was even more worrying.

“What did you do this time?” Ratchet asked before the engineer could say a word. Not that he noticed as he stopped in front of Ratchet and twirled.

Ratchet stared in confusion as he took in the engineers new look. Glowing lights flashed in various places in time with his helm fins and he looked to have even more armour plating – if that was even possible. Not to mention the charcoal grey paint job. “Dare I ask what brought this on?”

Wheeljack grinned. “Well, since I am banned from my lab I decided to work on this. Teletraan did his best with my original alt mode, but I've been doing my own research and thought this was more appropriate.” He twirled again and something niggled at Ratchet's memory. Something from a film Spike and Carly had put on... something about...

“You better not have tried to make your new alt form fully functional.” That was the last thing Ratchet needed, an explosion prone _**time travelling**_ engineer.

**6pm - Up to 11: Jazz**

Ratchet had no sooner released Wheeljack, having double checked his transformation several times (and no, he couldn't time travel, thank Primus) and finally let him leave with a stern warning than another voice spoke up.

“Being a bit harsh there aren't ya Ratch?” Jazz asked as he lounged on a berth.

Ratchet snickered as he went to pick his wrenches up, a quick scan having assured him Jazz was in perfect health and merely getting in the way. There was no such thing as an extreme lecture to Wheeljack. Nothing seemed to get through to him that he might possibly be in a little bit of danger from his own experiments.

In fact, it was about as useful as telling a certain special ops agent to leave him in peace. Once Jazz has decided to invade a place he's there to stay. Even locking him out doesn't work as he'll just find another way in.

Except... Ratchet smirked as he accessed the medbays private intercom system. The cacophony that came out of the speakers was officially some sort of Cybertronian music. A genre that Jazz just happened to hate and Ratchet helpfully turned it to full volume.

Jazz cringed. “Okay, okay, I get it, I'll go bother Prowl.” He beat a hasty retreat and Ratchet gratefully turned it off as soon as the door had slid shut behind him.

**7pm - I'm too old for this slag: Ironhide**

“I am too old for this slag.”

Ironhide merely grunted as Ratchet collapsed beside him in the corner of the rec room he had claimed. A red hand pushed what remained of a cube of energon towards the medic.

“Even without your fancy scanners I can tell yer running low.” He said as Ratchet slumped in his seat. “So, apart from my glorious company earlier, what's happened today?”

“What didn’t?” Ratchet said as he finished off the cube of energon. “Twins, Wheeljack, one of the new mechs that Magnus sent, Twins, Wheeljack, Red Alert, Twins,Wheeljack, Jazz...” He let the list trail off as he peered at a red shoulder, before propping himself up and using it as a headrest. “Unless somebody is about to go offline or the Decepticons attack I don’t want to be disturbed.”

Ironhide locked his frame so he didn’t accidentally move and disturb the medic who had promptly passed out on his shoulder as he contemplated his now empty cube of energon.

Obviously the officers were once again forgetting that recharge was a necessary part of life. Jazz had already hauled Prowl both into the rec room for a cube of energon and then back out, presumably to a berth.

Which is where the medic should probably be as well.

**8pm - Taking care: Ironhide**

Ratchet cycled up from recharge with a groan of stressed systems, just over a human hour according to his chronometer, nowhere near long enough to shut off the warnings flashing across his HUD, but enough to stop him entering emergency shut down.

Stretching, he winced as the gears in his spinal column shifted with a series of clicks. He didn’t remember getting back to his quarters...

“Feelin any better?” Ah, that would explain it.

“Hide?” The minivan was curled up in one of Ratchet’s chairs with a bookfile.

“You went into recharge in the rec room, I thought you’d be more comfortable here.” Ratchet shuttered his optics for a moment as he processed that.

“Thanks” He swung his feet over the edge of the berth, only to be pushed back flat as Ironhide sprang out of the chair.

“You take care of us; somebot has to take care of you. Now turn off whatever alarm woke you and get some more recharge.”

“I can’t, I’m due back on duty soon.” He protested, checking his chronometer and confirming that he had only three human hours before his next duty shift started and he had paperwork that still needed finishing before then.

“Primus Ratchet, either you go back into recharge or I’ll tie you to the fragging berth.” 

**9pm - Sense of humour: First Aid**

“Aid.” Ratchet waited till he received an affirmative through his comm. before continuing. “Could you possibly come to my quarters, I need your help.”

The other end of the comm. remained strangely silent for a long moment. “You need my help, boss?”

“Yes.” He shut the comm. line down, knowing that First Aid’s curiosity would have him come see what the problem was.

The swish of the outer door opening was followed by a tentative, “Boss?”

“In the back room, Aid.”

“So what’s wro...” The other ambulance trailed off as he reached the door, his optics lighting up with mirth as his chassis started shuddering.

That was not the reaction Ratchet had been hoping for.

“Are you quite finished?” He asked when his apprentice finally calmed down. Unfortunately it was the wrong thing to say as First Aid took one look at him and started giggling again, although this time he did make it over to the berth to try and undo Ironhide’s handywork.

**10pm - Highgrade: Ironhide**

“Hide!” The van grinned as the medic stalked towards him, his amused apprentice trotting along behind him.

“Should’a disabled your comm. too.”

Ratchet didn’t deign to answer in words, the wrench that bounced off the wall as Ironhide ducked making his point well enough. The van laughed, pushing a cube of energon from a stack at his elbow towards the two medics.

“High grade Hide? I’m on duty soon.” Ratchet said as he pushed his cube back.

“Not according to my schedule.”

“Yes I... was.” Ratchet frowned as he pinged Teletraan a second time to be sure. But the duty roster clearly stated that Wheeljack was on shift now and Perceptor was on next, they didn't normally take medbay shifts.

“How did you do that?” Ironhide spread his hands in a gesture of innocence.

“You like my _elite skillz_ then?” Jazz asked as he leant over Ratchet’s shoulder.

“Prowl’s going to offline you.” The medic warned, Jazz just gave his best disarming smile as he stole Ratchet’s as yet untouched cube.

“Only once he works off the sedative I dumped in his energon so he would actually recharge.”

Ratchet huffed, but unless he disturbed Prime, since Prowl was apparently indisposed, then he might as well accept his hacked schedule.

“That’s the spirit.” Ironhide said as Ratchet plucked another cube from the stash and proceeded to down it.

**11pm - Fireflies**

“Oooooh, pretty.” Ratchet unshuttered one optic to peer down his chassis at First Aid who had been using him as a pillow and was now making uncoordinated grabs at something above them.

Scanning his surroundings he frowned as it came back in a jumble of data, this would be the reason why he didn’t drink high grade.

According to his scanners there was a bioluminescent aquatic mammal flying around above them.

“Shiny.” Jazz said from somewhere near his feet, the clatter of metal, dull crunch, and muttered curse indicating that the saboteur had just attempted to get up and failed.

“Where did you get this stuff?” Ratchet asked as his second scan of the glowing phenomena now said that there were tiny glowing eagles flying around. Not only had they relocated to outside of the Ark at some point, and he really didn’t recall leaving the rec room, he was so thoroughly tanked that his scanners couldn’t even agree on one incorrect answer, instead giving him a multitude of options, non of which seemed right.

His third scan had said they were hundreds of little organic beetles which were on fire, which obviously couldn’t be right.

“Won it off Wheeljack.” Ironhide replied.

Jazz’s “Oh dear,” spoke for them all as the engineers energon was rather potent (and liable to explode), before he raised what was left of his cube and downed it. “To a good day.”

Ratchet snorted as he sat up, raising his cube, “To another normal day.” He said before finishing it and flopping back to the ground to peer up at the light show.


End file.
